Bus blunders

I felt that the past few experiences on the bus traveling through Korea warranted their own post altogether. I have mentioned before the sheer insanity of drivers here in Korea. Well, bus drivers are the worst of all. Maybe this is because they drive by a different set of rules than all the other drivers; a set of rules that cannot be clearly articulated as they make less sense than anything. Regular drivers (as in car drivers) weave in and out of traffic at a pace that is not permitted in Canada; note: on the way home from Seoul the other weekend I was in a cab traveling up to speeds of 160 km an hour. This is normal in Korea. Buses have their own lanes and seem to take precedence over other vehicles. They do not need to stop for red lights, or wait behind cars at any time. They just drive into an open space and overtake everyone. The point to this story is while en route to Seoul Jaime and I were on a bus when we heard a loud horn followed by a distinct crashing noise. That crash was caused by us, or rather our bus driver who was impatiently trying to overtake the vehicle just in front of him slightly to the left, but not left enough. Alas, our first car accident in Korea. The best part was the driver got out and he and the guy he hit were laughing. Jaime and I decided they must have been saying "oh, you again, our third accident this week!!". Honestly it would not surprise me. Note the smile on the bus driver's face:

We have witnessed a few other crashes here but that was our induction into the crash hall of fame so to speak. After a few minutes we were on our way back into the city. Last night, while on the way to Itaewon, Erin Jaime and I were talking on the bus as we normally do, nothing loud or obnoxious when we were tapped on shoulders by a Korean man yelling something in Korean. Now his tone was not friendly and we got the impression we were doing something wrong. The lady behind me leaned over angrily and said "You are talking, it is loud, do you know how many people are on this bus?? Very many people." Jaime and I just looked at her and thought, 'okay what is your point? Thanks Captain obvious, there are a lot of people on the bus'. Apparently we aren't allowed to converse on the bus. If we were being really loud and annoying I could see her point, but we weren't. It makes sense to talk with friends on a long journey to make the trip go faster. So the rest of the voyage was somewhat awkward and I tried to make sense of the "no talking on the bus" rule. But I couldn't. The only conclusion I could come up with was "In order to get by in Korea (at least on the bus) take everything you think is logical and do the opposite".